The aim of this book is to provide a systematic and practical account of methods of integration of ordinary and partial differential equations based on invariance under continuous (Lie) groups of trans formations. The goal of these methods is the expression of a solution in terms of quadrature in the case of ordinary differential equations of first order and a reduction in order for higher order equations. For partial differential equations at least a reduction in the number of independent variables is sought and in favorable cases a reduction to ordinary differential equations with special solutions or quadrature. In the last century, approximately one hundred years ago, Sophus Lie tried to construct a general integration theory, in the above sense, for ordinary differential equations. Following Abel's approach for algebraic equations he studied the invariance of ordinary differential equations under transformations. In particular, Lie introduced the study of continuous groups of transformations of ordinary differential equations, based on the infinitesimal properties of the group. In a sense the theory was completely successful. It was shown how for a first-order differential equation the knowledge of a group leads immediately to quadrature, and for a higher order equation (or system) to a reduction in order. In another sense this theory is somewhat disappointing in that for a first-order differ ential equation essentially no systematic way can be given for finding the groups or showing that they do not exist for a first-order differential equation.

A major portion of this book discusses work which has appeared since the publication of the book Similarity Methods for Differential Equations, Springer-Verlag, 1974, by the first author and J.D. Cole. The present book also includes a thorough and comprehensive treatment of Lie groups of tranformations and their various uses for solving ordinary and partial differential equations. No knowledge of group theory is assumed. Emphasis is placed on explicit computational algorithms to discover symmetries admitted by differential equations and to construct solutions resulting from symmetries. This book should be particularly suitable for physicists, applied mathematicians, and engineers. Almost all of the examples are taken from physical and engineering problems including those concerned with heat conduction, wave propagation, and fluid flows. A preliminary version was used as lecture notes for a two-semester course taught by the first author at the University of British Columbia in 1987-88 to graduate and senior undergraduate students in applied mathematics and physics. Chapters 1 to 4 encompass basic material. More specialized topics are covered in Chapters 5 to 7.

The first book to explicitly use Mathematica so as to allow researchers and students to more easily compute and solve almost any kind of differential equation using Lie's theory. Previously time-consuming and cumbersome calculations are now much more easily and quickly performed using the Mathematica computer algebra software. The material in this book, and on the accompanying CD-ROM, will be of interest to a broad group of scientists, mathematicians and engineers involved in dealing with symmetry analysis of differential equations. Each section of the book starts with a theoretical discussion of the material, then shows the application in connection with Mathematica. The cross-platform CD-ROM contains Mathematica (version 3.0) notebooks which allow users to directly interact with the code presented within the book. In addition, the author's proprietary "MathLie" software is included, so users can readily learn to use this powerful tool in regard to performing algebraic computations.

The papers in this volume cover a wide variety of topics in the geometric theory of functions of one and several complex variables, including univalent functions, conformal and quasiconformal mappings, minimal surfaces, and dynamics in infinite-dimensional spaces. In addition, there are several articles dealing with various aspects of approximation theory and partial differential equations. Taken together, the articles collected here provide the reader with a panorama of activity in complex analysis, drawn by a number of leading figures in the field.

These two volumes of 47 papers focus on the increased interplay of theoretical advances in nonlinear hyperbolic systems, completely integrable systems, and evolutionary systems of nonlinear partial differential equations. The papers both survey recent results and indicate future research trends in these vital and rapidly developing branches of PDEs. The editor has grouped the papers loosely into the following five sections: integrable systems, hyperbolic systems, variational problems, evolutionary systems, and dispersive systems. However, the variety of the subjects discussed as well as their many interwoven trends demonstrate that it is through interactive advances that such rapid progress has occurred. These papers require a good background in partial differential equations. Many of the contributors are mathematical physicists, and the papers are addressed to mathematical physicists (particularly in perturbed integrable systems), as well as to PDE specialists and applied mathematicians in general.

The geometrical theory of nonlinear differential equations originates from classical works by S. Lie and A. Bäcklund. It obtained a new impulse in the sixties when the complete integrability of the Korteweg-de Vries equation was found and it became clear that some basic and quite general geometrical and algebraic structures govern this property of integrability. Nowadays the geometrical and algebraic approach to partial differential equations constitutes a special branch of modern mathematics. In 1993, a workshop on algebra and geometry of differential equations took place at the University of Twente (The Netherlands), where the state-of-the-art of the main problems was fixed. This book contains a collection of invited lectures presented at this workshop. The material presented is of interest to those who work in pure and applied mathematics and especially in mathematical physics.